Spark: How Primary Sources and Interviews Can Change the World

Hi!! My name is Ella Fasciano and welcome to my website Spark! This website aims to be a source for educators as a database for primary sources and as possible inspiration for a lesson in the classroom. I have compiled a database of primary sources from interviews with people from many different walks of life, opinions, and backgrounds. In the following webpages, you can find many resources to deepen your or your students' understanding of history! This website came about because of my Gold Award project for Girl Scouts that looks at a problem in the community and tries to fix it. Below, read about why primary sources are so important and learn how they can deepen your knowledge. Feel free to explore the database of primary sources collected, and take a look at the lesson plan and templates I made to get students all over more comfortable in speaking and interviewing others! Also check out the comments section that will let you add your own primary sources. Feel free to use the template to inspire you and guide you on your interviewing process, and then come back and share what great quotes you heard. Enjoy exploring!

Includes/Index:

Primary Sources For Use in All Classrooms: This page has the primary source slideshow on which all of the quotes are located. The slideshow is a resource so quotes can be copied and pasted into your own lessons or read by students who are trying to gain a deeper knowledge of history. These quotes are separated by event and include quotes from many different points of view on many different topics.

• Templates: How to Interview and Talk to Others: This page includes resources for high school, middle school, and elementary school students who are interested in interviewing others. These templates include examples and guides to how to interview a person, including how to come up with questions and how to be an engaged listener. These templates can also be a guide for how to get more confident and be more engaged in everyday conversations.
• Lesson Plan on How to Interview: This page includes the lesson plan used to teach a high school class about the importance of primary sources and how to interview someone. This lesson plan includes the outline of the lesson and the activity that went along with the lesson. The slideshow I used is also available!
• Add Your Own Primary Sources!: This page is a comments section where you can add your own primary sources! Use the template as a guide or try interviewing on your own to get primary sources that you can then share here! These primary sources and quotes will be remembered forever in this comment section that will be an ongoing and expanding resource.

Why Primary sources and interviews are so important

First off, an interview is a conversation between two people where someone is asking questions to find out information and someone is answering with their opinions and thoughts. The template provided focuses on interviewing to learn people’s life stories and personal experiences when asking about historic events, also known as primary sources, but the tips found here can be applied to any conversation!

Primary sources are first hand accounts of documents of a time period and they are used in all academic studies, especially history, to get a personal account of an event that can bring it to life. They are incredibly important to….

• Deepen an understanding of history-We can learn, connect, and better understand history by looking at a personal view of the events we can only imagine.
• Connect to the people of the past-All people, from the past and from the present, are connected through the feelings that make us human. We can understand each other and the experiences we live so much more because of first person stories.
• New perspectives and nuances-Seeing history through a new point of view makes you think about history in new ways and your learning deepens as you think in new ways.
• The feelings behind the words-Dates and vocabulary take on a new meaning when you see history from a person’s eyes. With primary sources, you can feel the experiences of the past

Here is what we will be covering in the template found on this website:

• How to select a person or place for the interview
  • Step One-People
  • Step Two-Communication
  • Step Three-Where to interview
• How to Formulate Questions
  • Step One-pick your topic or theme
  • Step Two-Types of questions
  • Before the interview- Specific and Big Picture QUestions
  • On the Spot Specific and Big Picture Questions
• Tips for Conducting an Interview
  • How to get the ball rolling
  • How to be Engaged
  • How to Go with the Flow of the Conversation adn On the Spot Questions
  • What to do in Lulls
  • How to end the interview

Check out the template with help on all things conversation!

Thank you very much for visiting my website!! I hope it helps and good luck in all you do!